Follow my progress from Alexandra, NZ to Antelope Wells, New Mexico - the end of the Tour Divide Cycle Race/Experience

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Rail Trail Out and Back

This was a ride done as part of the buildup for the tour divide - and because Blair and Nigel caught the 'go long' bug. The rail trail provides a great way to crank some k's. Thought I should dust this little write-up off and post as originally intended.

Déjà vu, (/ˌdeɪʒɑː ˈvuː/) from French, literally "already seen", is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced has been experienced in the past... (Wikipedia)

This feeling presented itself numerous times over the Sunday - perhaps not surprisingly as this was the second time in a few months that I've completed a 300k out and back on the Central Otago Rail Trail.

Same trail - different people...

2am start. Ride out for breakfast in Middlemarch. Ride back to the car and drive home. Simple.

Blair and Nigel were keen to see how they responded to more k's than they had ever done in one day. Combining both of their longest days would have netted considerably less than this distance so they were understandably a little nervous at the start.

Great conditions with a warm night with no wind saw the dark hours completed without incident. I normally undertake early rides on my own and will often listen to music and podcasts. I missed that a little bit. Habits I guess. This was more than balanced up by having the guys there to share the experience with but I do like my alone time too.

By Ranfurly the day was underway. We met up with Geof and Scotty who were doing an overnighter as part of training for this years Tour Divide. Some stick was given for my lack of gear... I had considered loading on the front bag but couldn't quite get my head around carrying a tent and sleeping bag for a day out. Everything else was much as usual...

Breakfast in Middlemarch at the 150k turnaround was of the fat bastard - Big Breakfast variety for me. Nigel ate a little less with Blair bringing up the rear in the volume stakes with a toasted sandwich. Pushing back to Ranfurly is quite a slog and Blairs fadeout close to the end of this section may have been due to not getting enough on board at the turnaround. After food he was back on track...

Ross jumped on the trail at Ranfurly and caught up to us by Oturehua. Fresh legs saw him make 27 or 28k through that section. He set the pace from there through to pretty much the end.

I had one point where energy deserted me. I had 260k on the legs and a quick food intake calculation showed that I had got most of my calories from proteins and fats for the previous couple of hours. Salami, a protein bar and cherry tomatoes lacked the impact carbs I needed to push hard. Smashing in some fruit jubes and a few squares of chocolate soon changed this:-)

13 hours and a bit ride time averaging a more than 23k per hour was a good effort. A little headwind here and there but no real tail wind at any point made for a good honest ride